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Most parents assume that once they choose to homeschool, the state steps back and lets them get on with the job of educating their children. Mississippi law has long reflected that understanding, recognizing home instruction while explicitly keeping the state out of the homeschool classroom.
House Bill 1512 would shatter that balance.
Behind its bureaucratic language, HB 1512 does two dangerous things: it dramatically expands the state’s enforcement muscle in compulsory attendance, and it pulls homeschools into the orbit of state curriculum, testing, and record‑keeping—backed by the threat of losing the right to homeschool at all.
First, the enforcement side. HB 1512 requires the Office of Compulsory School Attendance Enforcement to bring in licensed social workers and mental health professionals to help attendance officers. That may sound benign, even helpful. In practice, it means the social‑services and mental‑health apparatus becomes more deeply embedded in what used to be a simple question of “Is the child in school?”
A missed form, a misunderstanding, or a struggling family could quickly become an intrusive investigation. Truancy stops being an administrative issue and starts looking more like a quasi‑criminal case, with more officials in your living room asking more personal questions—without any rollback of existing state powers to balance this new muscle.
The homeschool provisions go even further.
Under HB 1512, homeschooling parents must submit an annual “academic file” to the Department of Education. That file must include curriculum descriptions and progress reports explicitly aligned to Mississippi’s College and Career Readiness Standards. Parents must give benchmark tests in English, math, and science using state‑approved exams, under “secure conditions” with certified proctors. They must keep attendance records showing the equivalent of 180 public‑school days and submit those, too. And in grades 3, 5, 8, and 11, homeschoolers must sit for state‑approved standardized tests administered by certified teachers.
This is not a simple notification that a family is homeschooling. It is an ongoing regulatory regime that nudges, and eventually forces, homeschool programs to look and feel like public school—same goals, same pacing, same tests.
Imagine a family in rural Mississippi who chose homeschooling because their child was being bullied or because they wanted a faith‑based or classical curriculum. Today, they can tailor lessons to their child’s needs, move faster in some subjects and slower in others, and choose assessments that match their values. Under HB 1512, that same family must now buy or cobble together curriculum mapped to state standards, pay for testing and certified proctors, spend hours on paperwork, and open their homeschooling to state inspection—knowing that “noncompliance” could trigger “intervention, mandatory remediation, or withdrawal of homeschool status.”
That last phrase should chill every parent, whether you homeschool or not. It gives the state explicit leverage to dismantle a family’s chosen educational path.
On top of the liberty concerns, this bill grows government permanently. It adds staff, mandates, and bureaucracy, with ongoing costs for taxpayers and unfunded compliance costs for families. That is mission creep, not responsible stewardship.
Mississippians should insist that education policy respect parental authority and keep government in its proper, limited role. HB 1512 does the opposite. Contact your legislators and urge them to vote no. Our children’s education—and our fundamental freedom to direct it—are too important to hand over to expanding state control.
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